


An End Has a Start

by arcadianambivalence, youngavengersbigbang



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-12
Updated: 2013-10-12
Packaged: 2017-12-29 04:43:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1001041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcadianambivalence/pseuds/arcadianambivalence, https://archiveofourown.org/users/youngavengersbigbang/pseuds/youngavengersbigbang
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the run from becoming Kang, Nate searches for a place to settle down and live without interference from his possible future self or any versions from alternate universes.  When a glimpse of the Earth-616 timeline brings him back to the Young Avengers mid-Children's Crusade, his struggle to fight his future continues, and this time, it has even more consequences...</p>
            </blockquote>





	An End Has a Start

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sesammy](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=sesammy).



> Spoilers: Children's Crusade, AU; ties into the current YA run and Kid Immortus's appearance in FF
> 
> Based off a fanmix by sesammy:
> 
>  
> 
> [Playlist on YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1t77mkzVko&list=PLyD0H9knIY0KWPpHJrO7ITqnaQDyT1Aq0)

Chapter 1

_What do you know about time travel?_

            _I believe this would be called a loaded question.  There are different theories: that time is fixed and unalterable, that time is layered and each travel back in time rewrites history, that time branches out and diverges with the presence of a time traveler, or that time traveling into the past is, in and of itself, a destructive force that destroys the past and will eventually encompass the present and future—I changed all of that._

_Well, that is to say, Kang changed all of that._

_Who is Kang?  To put it simply, I am he.  To put it not-so simply, he is my possible future self.  An evil despot future version of myself.  Picture Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan with technology from a thousand years in the future and without many good qualities.  That’s Kang the Conqueror._

_That’s why I stole some of his armor and went backwards in time.  And that is why I went on the run, leaping through time and across time lines, to put as much distance between reality and possibility._

_If I’m careful enough, I can see my ancestors and yours.  I can see ancient civilizations and study a myriad of planets.  I can go nearly anywhere.  I can see nearly anything._

_And, looking back at what I’ve done, that is the problem._

¥

I was somewhere between Earth-609 and Earth-612 when I remembered I still wore Kang’s armor and realized just how far from home I was.  It seemed like a minute ago, I had been in the schoolyard, standing horrified of the images from Kang’s various conquered timelines and wishing more than anything to get help and lock him away for good.  My vision swam before me and I felt tingly and numb as the present caved away into the delta of time.

            _Kang’s armor,_ I thought, _so that’s what’s causing this!_

            Terror and wonder mingled as I gazed at the bright strands of time lines surrounding me.  There could be hundreds, thousands!  They were an escape hatch.  By entering them, I could slip anywhere in time in any universe I could possibly want.

            I could get away from Kang.  I could get help to fight him.

            He said he discovered time travel by a time machine.  I just needed to stay away from time machines, right?  _Shouldn’t be so hard…_ And in the meantime, I could look for someone to help me, someone powerful—or a group, like the one Kang had shown fighting him.

            _What was that group’s name?_   I pondered as I examined the glowing time lines near me.  _The Revengers?  No—the Avengers!_

            From that moment on, I resolved to seek out this Avenger group.  They could help me.  We had a common enemy, after all.

            After stepping into the New York City of Earth-616, I realized two things: one, the Avengers of this time and place had disbanded and two, these Avengers were jerks.  I tracked down countless Avengers with public identities, and not one would speak to me or believe me.  Finally, I found Vision, a synthezoid—apparently rare for that time period—with information about a second generation of Avengers.

            That’s how I met Billy, Teddy, Eli—but you already know that.  So, as the Young Avengers, we failed our first bout with Kang, you could say.  I had to return to the time stream, but I didn’t return home, that is, not to my original time and place.  I never told the others this, but while they carried on the work of the Young Avengers in secret and later in public, I hopped through time streams, trying to keep one foot ahead of Kang.

            Time travel is a funny thing.  I may have killed Kang back on Earth-616, but he was still around in a slightly younger version of himself.  Death doesn’t obliterate you from all time streams.  It just marks the end of a journey for _one_ timeline.  Kang was still out there, trying to intercept me, trying to remind me of something, of some _one,_ I was not, of the things I was supposed to have done—or would do.

¥

            So I skipped ahead.  Intending to never meet with them again for the sake of the time stream, I peeked into their futures—purely out of curiosity, out of knowing that they would be okay.

            What I saw horrified me.

            Wiccan, Billy, was dead.

            He was supposed to go on to be a brilliant mage.  He saved my life.  He had Teddy to care for him.  I didn’t get to see much of their relationship during my brief time here before, but they definitely seemed to be going somewhere.  He was supposed to be even greater than his mother.  He was one of my few, and closest friends.  One of the Young Avengers, along with Teddy, Eli, Kate, and Cassie.

_Cassie_ …I barely had a chance to spend time with her while I was on Earth-616, but she left an irreversible mark on me.  We hardly knew each other when I retreated from her life, but she saw the goodness in me.  Maybe that was her youth speaking, maybe it was how she treated everyone, but I could have sworn she somehow had the power to illuminate the corners of my heart.  In the lonely days that followed my exit from the early days of the Young Avengers of Earth-616, I couldn’t get her out of my mind.

And if I didn’t do something, I would lose my friends.  _All_ of them.

            I’m not proud of what I did next.  While, as I later learned, the Young Avengers took down the likes of The Shocker and added new team members Speed and the new Vision, modeled after my brain waves and technology, I sought out Doctor Strange in Earth-26 and, I admit, checked up on that timeline’s version of my twenty-first century friends.  Relations between heroes, powered and not, were more amicable than other places I had seen.  The Doctor Strange of that Earth was a teacher of mages and witches.  It took some convincing, but I was able to learn a few spells.

            To be honest, the more time I spent with Strange, the more uncomfortable I felt.  I wasn’t a mage like Billy and I could hardly ask Sorcerer Supreme to travel the time streams with me.  But Billy, however…

            A vague, desperate plan began to form.  I tried to not set myself up for disappointment, but I’m nothing if not a believer in free will, in hope.  And anyways, what’s the point of having time and space at your fingertips if you do nothing with the chances you have been given?

  


Chapter 2

            I began to explore different time streams, ones where I—where _Kang_ —had not appeared.  There was Earth-26, an amicable place.  Relations between the super and non-powered were less tense than in other universes.  On the other hand, the Young Avengers still existed there, not that there was a problem with that, but if my plan worked, I couldn’t have two Cassie Langs running around in the same time stream.

            Earth-127 was interesting, to say the least, but Brother Mutant was not a pleasant figure.  I didn’t want to send Cassie into his claws.

            Earth-267 was definitely _not_ an option.  The moment I stepped into that time stream, I knew Kang had been at work here.  The place was in ruins, and even if Kang was nowhere to be seen, the bombed-out cities and utter devastation had the Conqueror written all over it.  I back-peddled out of there as fast as I could.

            Earth-717 was fascinating, to say the least.  It looked like a “What If?” scenario run wild to its heart’s content, but it was, perhaps, a little too different to be much of a home.

            Earth-723 was an option.  It was peaceful, an idyllic vision of Earth.

            _It just may be…_

¥

Now came the tricky part: returning to Earth-616 without disrupting the time stream in a way that destroys the universe.  _No pressure_.

            The tunnel of light surrounding the entrance to Earth-616’s time stream glowed violet.  The full weight of what I was about to do fell upon me.  If I failed, how disastrous would it be?

            _Too late to think about that_ , I told myself, stepping across the threshold and back to my friends.  What I saw was a jarring sight: not just the Young Avengers, but the Avengers, as well, fighting _each other._

            I had studied this time in preparation.  As far as I knew, there was no second Civil War.  As far as I knew, there was no reason for Magneto and Doom to battle.  As far as I knew, there should not have been a mob of Doom-bots running around in tech that looked suspiciously like Kang’s.  And that was when I saw the source of the problem, the moment I needed to prevent.

            Wolverine leaned over the Scarlet Witch, except she wasn’t the Scarlet Witch anymore, she was just Wanda Maximoff—not that _just Wanda Maximoff_ was a powerless state—and threatening to kill her.

            Billy and Tommy’s mother.  One of the most powerful Avengers of all time.  The near-destroyer and reviver of mutants across various histories—and Wolverine was about to kill her before she saved the mutant race.

            “Not if I can help it!”  I roared, firing a stunning blast at Wolverine.

            Billy and Wanda turned and stared at me in shock.  “Iron Lad?”  Billy gaped.

            I nodded through my suit.  “Yes.  I’m back, Billy.  And I’m here to save you.”

            _I’m here to save all of you._

            And with that, I yanked the awakening Wolverine off his feet and flung him as far away from Wanda and Billy as I could.  He flew past Patriot and Captain America and crashed into the ground, leaving a trail of uprooted soil in his wake.

            My friends—my _friends!_ —stared at me, shock and…hope in their eyes.

            And then I saw Cassie and my moment of joy turned to terror.  She towered above the others.  Doom-bots crawled at her feet, and debris from the Magneto-Doom fight was headed her way.

            “Stature!”  I screamed, “You’re a target!  Shrink!”

            She didn’t need any more convincing.  Reacting quickly, she sized down and dropped into my arms.  _If only she had an iron suit like mine to protect her._

            “What are you doing here?  And how long can you stay?”  She cried in delight, wrapping her arms around me.  The danger around us faded away for that moment.  I could not feel her through the suit, but her act of embrace touched the bottom of my heart and twisted my stomach like never before.

            _How long can you stay?_

            But I couldn’t get too comfortable, of course.  We were in the middle of a war zone and Doom—

            “Hold on,” I warned, slipping one hand free as she shrunk further and climbed onto my shoulder.  I fired containment fields—a neat little trick I learned on Earth-285—at Magneto and Doom.  The sparring villains froze, suspended in a temporary red haze.  Satisfied, I eased to the ground.  Cassie hopped off my shoulder.

            “You guys okay?”  I asked, blasting a doom-bot attempting to punch Patriot then turning and felling one trying to wrestle the bow from Hawkeye’s—Kate’s—hands.  _So they let her stay, after all.  Good._   The young woman was spectacular with a bow and arrow.

            “You tell _us,_ ” Eli replied, slamming a doom-bot against his shield.

            “Should we be worried about time and space falling apart?”  Kate asked, firing an arrow at another doom-bot.

            “Who needs enemies when you’ve got friends?”  I shrugged and—okay—boasted about my time travel technique.  My ego distracted me from the danger at hand, though.  Somehow, Doom had escaped the containment field—and he was headed straight for Billy.

            “He’s after Billy!”  Teddy roared, panic rising.

            _What I saw…_

            “C’mon!”  I shouted over the roar of the battle, “We’ve gotta get Billy before Doom does!”

            “Tommy, Hulkling, Vision, Iron Lad, pick a partner and go!”  Eli, clearly the leader this time around, ordered.

            Teddy scooped up Eli before he finished speaking.  Tommy—I assumed it was Tommy because he looked like a light-haired Billy—grabbed Kate and sped off.  I turned to Cassie on my shoulder, “Ready?”  I asked.

            She grinned, “Ready.”

            And we followed the others.  Vision—I don’t believe I ever could get used to a synthezoid with _my_ brain patterns—trailed behind.

            _Like a ghost._

            We met Billy and Wanda, worse for wear, at the edge of a forest.  Billy leaped into Teddy’s arms and automatically bantered about the situation.

            _Like an old married couple._

            Breathing heavily, Billy explained that Wanda lost her memories and Billy his powers.  “We need another way out before Doom—too late.”

            Doom, Magneto, and the Avengers close behind crashed through the forest and towards us.

            Through my suit, I grinned, opening the portal.  “That’s the thing about time travel,” I smirked as the portal stretched around us, “It’s never too late.”

  


Chapter 3

Maybe it was never too late, but it was too early.

            My tech was not ready for carrying so many people unnoticed around time.

            And that was when things began to fall apart, again.

            We were like rats in a maze, turning circles, panicking, and always running into another danger.  An exploding un-dead Jack of Hearts, the Avengers, the X-Men, and then Dr. Doom.

            Doom.  What a fitting name for the bane of my existence, next to Kang.  Next to myself.  One day, I would seal the fate of a man so aptly named, but not yet, not at this point in time and space.

            No, what he did caused my hatred of him.

            He _murdered_ Cassie.

            It was the heat of battle.  X-Men, Avengers—everyone was everywhere.  There were Kree warriors and various Ultrons.  I did not see the real enemy at hand when it happened.  I just remember Cassie screaming as her shadow passed over me as she fell to the earth after a fatal beam of light from Doom, tricked up in pieces of Wiccan’s and Scarlet Witch’s powers.

            She was dead before I got to her.

            She died thinking her father was dead.

            She died with the vision of Doom in her eyes and the pain of his power exploding across her ribs.

            And I was going to make him pay.  I was going to make him suffer—him and anyone who stood between me and bringing Cassie back.

            “We have to get her out of here,” I remember saying, “I can take her to a doctor…I can make her better.”

            My words fell on deaf ears, on a crowd of adults unwilling to listen, already accepting her reversible death.

            For crying out loud, the Scarlet Witch was _there!_ She brought back Hawkeye, surely she could save Cassie…

            “Time travel _caused_ this…” Eli whispered.

            “And time travel can save her!”  I snapped back.

            “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, son,” Captain America reached out to steady me.  His words were scathing dismissals to my tormented ears.

            I bat away his hand.  “ _No!  You could have prevented this!_ ”  I screamed, “You should have let the Scarlet Witch alone.  You should have left _Wiccan_ alone.”  As my hysteria grew, I broke the laws of time travel.  I revealed the future, or, rather, the past that I knew.  “Do you know what you are remembered for?  Do you know what _you_ are _responsible_ for?”  I turned to the group before me, “ _All of you!  You did this!_ ”

            The new Vision floated up to me.  “Let her rest,” he urged.

            No one understood.  No one except her father, her father who wasn’t really supposed to be here anyway.

            “Mr. Lang,” I pleaded, “I can save her, but we have to go _right now,_ okay?  You and I—we can get a doctor, and—”

            “We need to return Scott Lang to his time,” the Vision interrupted.  “We need to put him to rest.”

            It wasn’t right.  Doom was alive.  Magneto was alive.  Lang was alive only to lose his daughter and have to die again, if the Vision had its way.  Cassie was dead.

            Cassie was dead.

            Cassie was dead.

            Who _was_ Vision, anyway?  _Me._   The Vision was modeled after _me_ and _my_ tech.  And he had betrayed me.  How _dare_ he!  How _dare_ they all turn on Cassie like this?

            _Damn them!_

            “You are _nothing!_ ”  I cried, knocking Vision’s skull off the pitiful, rusty excuse for a neck.  “Nothing but a _machine!_ ”  My fist landed another blow against his face.  His _stupid_ metal face.  The thing was an _object._   And it had tried to _replace_ me.

            The Young Avengers called my name, tried to grab me, to pull me off of the Vision.  _If only they knew how_ close _they are to saving Cassie._   _If only they’d let me do this_ one thing _and then I could leave them forever, if that’s what they want._   Well, they were wrong about all this, and I had to show them.  I elbowed Speed away.  I held my hand up to Billy and Eli, to warn them of what would befall anyone who tried to stop me.

            Looking back, I know that was wrong, that I should not have turned on my friends like that.  But time brings wisdom to replace the emotion of the present.

            “You wouldn’t exist if not for me!”  I roared as I pummeled the machine.  The _thing.  It._   Breaking him made me feel better.  Breaking him distracted me from the pain.  It felt good.  “I can take you apart just as easily,” I hissed with one final blow to it’s operating system.

            It crashed into a pile of junk consumed by flames and flickering electric sparks.

            I panted, leaning over the rubble before me.  My rage began to ease.  My heart-beat slowed.  And everything around me fell to a hush.

            Eyes defiant, I jut my chin out and walked tall as everyone stared at me with gaping mouths.  _Let them see what I am capable of._   I walked over to Cassie, to Lang, and offered my hand to him as the portal swirled and opened.

            “Come with me.”  I offered.  “Come with _her._ ”

            His eyes had changed.  Even he had lost hope.  His jaw shook as I slipped my hands under Cassie and lifted her into my arms.  “Don’t…” he whispered, “Don’t take her where I can’t follow.”

            “One last chance,” I whispered, “If you come with me, you will see her again.”  I raised my eyes to the Young Avengers.  “Stay here and you will never know peace.  Follow me, and I can bring you to a time and place where you can be _safe_ and you can be with her.”

            Whimpering, Lang dropped his head into his hands.  All tears, all pain.  No hope.  No resolve.

            The Young Avengers stared at me.

            “But, Nathaniel.  This is what makes you Kang.  If you try to fix this, you’ll just become him,” Billy murmured.  His words stung me.

            They weren’t going to come.  They had all abandoned me.

            I shook my head, stepping into the portal.  “You underestimate me, Billy.  I am going to be better than Kang.  Much better.  You’ll see…”

            And the image of my only friends faded into the red light of the time-stream.  With Cassie in my arms, I was doing this alone.  I was doing this so _she_ would never be alone.  Not again.  Not after this.

            But first, a visit to a doctor…

Chapter 4

 “Doctor Strange!”  I yelled as I pushed through the door to his home, Cassie heavy in my arms.

            His students, sitting cross-legged on the floor around him as he sat in a chair, the book of spells in his lap, turned to gape at me.  A grim shadow falling across his brow, he stood and spoke softly, “What is it, Nathaniel?”

            “She’s dead,” I spoke as I elbowed a pile of books off a table.  “I need you to bring her back.”

            He sighed ruefully.  “Nathaniel, I can’t bring back just anyone.”

            I lay Cassie on the table and turned to Strange.  “You—no, she’s…” I glanced at the students around him.  “It’s…it’s someone private and important,” I whispered with a meaningful look at the students.

            He took my hint and nodded.  “Ah…” his voice was deep and gravely.  He turned his attention to the students at his feet.  “That will be all for today.  We’ll resume the lesson on conjuring water tomorrow.”  The students quickly filed out, daring to pass a glance at Cassie.

            They didn’t think it would work, either.

            They clearly underestimated the Sorcerer Supreme.

            Once they were gone, I explained, “This is Cassie Lang.  Her death is a key moment in my…predicament.  I need you to revive her.”

            He approached the table, studying Cassie, who had begun to turn cold.  “Hmmm…” he muttered.  “What happened to her?”

            “She fought Doom.”  I growled.  “She thought he had killed her father.  She saved…everyone’s lives.  But if she dies, if she _stays dead_ , then I am that much closer to becoming…”

            “Kang?”  He seemed to be watching me, even though his eyes were on Cassie.  “Nathaniel, have you ever considered that you are experiencing denial?”

            I grit my teeth.  “The longer you wait, the more irreversible it becomes, right?”

            “Nathaniel.”  He stressed my name.  “Are you doing this out of selfish reasons?”

            “I…thousands, _billions_ of lives are at stake if I become Kang.  She’s my friend.  It wasn’t supposed to be this way.  _Please._ ”

            He was silent, then sighed deeply.  His shoulders slumped for a moment before he took a deep breath and stood to his full height.  His eyes began to glow.  He reached his hands out toward Cassie and hovered them over her body.

            “ _Agamotto O crystal—“_ he chanted, _“—where bound’ries decay—I know the will to live—grant me the way!”_

            The lights around us flickered, then returned to normal.  The air hummed, then the sound faded away.  Strange’s eyes rolled down and stopped glowing.  Everything was silent and expectant.  My eyes were glued to Cassie.  Was she breathing?  Was she alive?  Did it work?

            Silence.

            I couldn’t breathe.  My hope had been restored only to fall, crushed, into an infinitesimal scattered array of pieces.

            Minutes crawled by.  Not a movement from Cassie.

            My hope had been restored only to fall, crushed, into an infinitesimal scattered array of pieces.

            Finally, Strange turned to me with remorseful eyes, “I’m sorry, Nathaniel,” he whispered, reaching out to place his hand on my shoulder.

            In shock, I began to back away.  Doctor Strange, Captain America, Iron Man—they were all alike.  They could have done more, but they didn’t.

            They could have done _more,_ but they _didn’t._

            Would I become just like them?  I told the Young Avengers that I’d be different, but could I really change so much from my elders?  From my future—my _possible_ future—no, who was I kidding?  I couldn’t shake the future off as much as I couldn’t shake my shadow off my feet.

            _It’s time to grow up.  To give up.  From here on out, you’re going to be alone, followed by only time, a time that is catching up to you._   _A self-fulfilling prophecy._

            Trying to bring back Cassie was selfish and impossible, even magic couldn’t do that.  Some Sorcerer Supreme Strange was…Wiccan had a better chance at bringing her back than some witch teacher did.

            _Wiccan._

            The portal to the time stream began to pulse and crackle around me.  Light cracked through the air, burning a door to the universe.

            _I’m going back,_ I realized as I lifted Cassie off the table.

            “I’m truly sorry, Nathaniel.”  Strange tried again.

            “I know,” I whispered as I set Cassie onto the floor of the time stream.  “Which is why,” I turned to Strange, light buzzing across my hands and chest, “I’m going to make this as quick and relatively painless as possible.”

            Before he could block me, I had fired fatal beams into his heart and skull.  He hit the ground, smoldering from the pulse.  The ashes and burn marks across his clothing turned to a glittering red and blue.

  


Chapter 5

Life is contradictory for time travelers.  For one thing, you can relive the same event over and over again.  You can be in the Paleolithic age one day and the far future the next.  You can hop from planet to planet and into different universes.  You can see how events play out when one key factor diverges in each time stream.  You can make a million friends.

            However, you can relive the same event over and over again, and it will never go your way, not the way you want it to.  You can jump from one hell to another, and your presence there can change things in a catastrophic way.  You can see how events would have played out if you never interfered, and now you have the guilt that you messed things up.  You messed them up and cannot fix them, or you have a ridiculously low chance that it’s better you leave things be, cut the cord, and go for broke.  You can watch your million friends die.  And it can all be your fault.

            A time traveler, by nature, is stepping on cracks, inching along because he, or she, dreads stepping on a butterfly, on killing something valuable and setting off a domino effect.  You’re a safety net and a trigger wrapped into one, and you don’t know which side affects when and where you are until too late.  And it happens over and over again.

            It’s a variable raised to infinity.

_I hate time travel.  I hate what it’s done to me, to others.  I hate what it did to Kang.  I hate what it will most likely do to me._

_What’s the point of time travel if you can’t fix what you broke?_

_What’s the point of time travel if you keep reaching the same result?_

_What’s the point of anything?_ I asked myself.

            One more chance.  That nervous, wistful hope for _one more chance_ that peeks out around the corners of your mind—that is what keeps you going.  That is the point of everything.

            And so I found Wiccan, son and surpasser of the Scarlet Witch.  I found my friends.  I found one more chance—and I took it.

¥

I found them when the wounds are still raw, when they were about to quit and abandon each other.  I brought it all up again, dug up what they were beginning to define.  I unearthed their greatest fears realized.  I asked so much of them and I couldn’t give them anything concrete in return.

            And they accepted.  It took convincing, but they accepted.

            We were in the time stream when Billy’s confidence faltered again.

            “What if it doesn’t work?”  He asked, staring down at his hands as he crouches by Cassie.

            Kate avoided looking at the corner I had Cassie resting in, though I could tell she was fighting every impulse to.  Tommy had his eyes glued to the images surrounding us.  He was studying everything, energy jittering around him.  Eli, eyes downcast, stared at Cassie, his lips pressed together, shoulders sagging.  And Teddy had his arms around Billy and murmured words of encouragement.

            I reached my hand out to Billy.  I didn’t touch his shoulder.  I didn’t touch his hands.  I touched his cheek, knelt in front of him, and, our eyes meeting, told him with as much sincerity as I could muster, “I have faith in you.”

            He swallowed, nodded, and clenched his jaw.  I stood and backed away.  Teddy squeezed Billy in support before stepping back as well.

            Billy took a deep breath before beginning.  “ _IwantCassietolive.  IwantCassietolive._ ”  His breaths became more even.  His eyes glowed blue.  Forces wound around him, seeping out from time and space to find the mage.  Power glided past us to reach him, to enter his bloodstream and filter out into the spell.  His words became more distinct and his voice grew in volume.  “ _I want Cassie to live.  I want Cassie to live.”_

            The blue glow, the tendrils of magic and forces of the universe, wrapped around Cassie, knotting around her, covering her like a cocoon.  I couldn’t see her limp and greying face anymore.

            Billy continued, the muscles of his face posed in concentration.  “ _I want Cassie to live.  I want Cassie to live…_ ”

            The light was getting too bright for me to stare at.  I glanced at my friends.  Kate faced a corner.  Eli’s face was in his hands.  Tommy squeezed his eyes shut.  Teddy squinted at the light, eyes focused on Billy.

            Pressure built around us.  I could hear my heart beat pounding in my ears.  The rhythm of the pressure shifted.  Then, there were two sets of pulses, and one was hers.

            Billy’s voice rose to a roar, a shout to the universe, a demand, _“I WANT CASSIE TO LIVE!”_

            A hand reached out of the blue sheet and shook Billy’s arm.  A weak voice asked, “Could you knock it off, Billy?  The universe has heard and answered and wants you to shut up, now.”

            The blue glow cleared, eased back into the universe.  And there was Cassie—alive, the color returning to her face, her body warming, and her heart beating.

            She looked exhausted—but that didn’t stop any of us from rushing forward and nearly crushing her in a group embrace.  My chest felt like it was going to rip apart from the inside out from my heart beating so strongly.

            “Cassie!”

            “You’re alive!”

            “It worked!”

            We shouted, tightening our arms around her.

            “Uh…guys?”  She whispered, “Could you give me some space, please?  Need to breathe, you know…”

            “So…” a voice behind us cut through our happiness.  “She lives, after all.”

  


Chapter 6

I knew that voice.  Without looking at him, I knew who had invaded the time stream.  I would know that voice, that deep and prideful voice.

            My face stony, I rose and turned to face him.

            “Kang.”  I spat his name.

            He smirked, eyes lidded, like he knew how this would all play out.

            “But…I-I thought you killed him, Nate,” Billy whispered.

            “Where are you from?”  Kate asked, raising her bow and withdrawing an arrow from her quiver.

            His smirk broke into a grin.  _Just…enjoying every second of this, aren’t you?_   “I think the better question is, ‘ _When_ are you from?’”

            Eli knelt next to Cassie and held his shield in front of her.  “Cut the smart talk.”

            Kang chuckled, his laughter rattling around and echoing in his helmet.  “Eli?  Still in that Bucky Barnes outfit, I see.”

            I stepped forward.  “Which Kang are you?”

            I could feel my friends’ eyes turn on me.  Their gazes prickled against the back of my neck.  I could tell they wondered how much I knew, how much I had been keeping from them.

            Kang raised an eyebrow.  “Not you, lad, if that’s what you mean.”

            I grit my teeth, “Which.  One.  _Are._ You?”

            He raised his hand, the pulsar on the palm of his suit glowing, “Why don’t you figure it out for yourself?  I, for one, know that you’re from Earth-616, a few centuries later than your friends, and,” he narrowed his eyes at Teddy, “That green Halfling over there is from the Skrull Empire.”

            Claws slid from Teddy’s fingers.  His green skin turned to scales.

            “Don’t attack,” I warned.

            “Don’t attack?  Are you from a ‘peace-loving’ time line?  Maybe you can refresh my memory, lad.  Is that the time line with the undead mutants running around, or”—he grinned and stressed the next insult—“the one with the genocidal terrorist caborting about.  What was her name, uh…Wanda Maximoff.  The mother of the two demon spawn over—”

            “ _Enough!_ ”  Billy screamed, firing a blue blast at Kang.

            It splattered across Kang’s uniform, but he remained unaffected.  He glanced at the mess with amusement twinkling in his eyes.  “Pitiful.”  He raised his eyes to Billy, pupils glittering in delight and mockery, “The mage I knew commanded planets, universes.  You can’t even cast a simple stun.  All for the better, though.  The other one put up a fight, along with his armies.  But magic is nothing compared to technology.  I scattered his flaming remains across the night sky.  Maiming you will be much easier.”

            The pulsar at his palm hummed and fired.

  


Chapter 7

I was next painfully aware of my heart beating and a buzzing noise in my ears.  Oxygen burned through my lungs.  The buzz strengthened and my friends’ voices began to clear.

“Is it working?”

            “I’m trying the best I can.”

            “Oh God…”

            “We shouldn’t have come here.”

            “He’s breathing!  He’s breathing!”

My eyelids fluttered and slid open.  Foggy images began to sharpen.  Billy, Kate, Teddy, Eli, and Tommy leaning over me.  Kate’s hair draped down and tickled my chin.  Their hot breaths made my skin tingle.  You forget what it’s like to have bare skin after wearing a helmet for so long.

Coughs racked my chest.  I rolled onto my side and spat out the blood on my tongue.  Concerned hands touched my arms, held my head.

“Nate?”  Kate asked.  “Are you okay?”

            I coughed again and nodded, instantly regretting that.  My vision swam.  “What happened?”  I asked.

            They smiled.  Teddy glanced tenderly at Billy before saying, “Should we start with the part where you saved Billy’s life?”

            “You jumped in front of him when Kang tried to blast him.”  Eli supplied.

            I tried to lift my head and glance around, but failed.  My head flopped on its side.  “Where’s Kang now?”

            Tommy grinned, “Cassie crushed him!”

            Panic seized me.  Someone was missing.  “Cassie, where’s Cassie?”

            A hand tapped my forehead.  I leaned my head back.  And there she was, her expression partly abashed, partly distant.

            “I’m here,” she whispered.

            _Thank the Heavens, as they’d say._

            I sighed in relief and shut my eyes.

            “And I know that you killed Jonas.”

            My eyes shot open again.  I fought for words of explanation.  “Cassie, I…I can fix him…I-I’m sorry.”

            Her expression turned cold.  “You killed one of us.  How will we know you won’t be like the Kang we—I—just killed?”

            I swallowed.  “You can’t.”

            She nodded solemnly, then whispered a word I couldn’t understand at first.

            “What?”

            “Penance.  For you…for me.  For what we’ve done.  I’ve thought it over and we both need to live up to our actions.  If we’re still going to Earth-723, we need to pay our dues.”

            “Redemption?”

            “Justice.”

            I forced myself to sit up.  It was my turn to nod.  “You’re still coming with me?”

            “We can’t go home again.  We’ll ruin the time line.”

            “What about your father?”

            She glanced at the others.

            “We’ll tell him goodbye for Cassie,” Kate resolved.

            “You can’t.  I’m sorry.  Once the five of you return to your home, you’ll forget you were ever here.”

            “They’ll still think I’m dead?”  Cassie asked.  Tears brimmed in her eyes.

            I couldn’t force myself to speak.  I could only nod.

            She squeezed her eyes shut and exhaled deeply.  Squaring her shoulders, she opened her eyes with resolve.  “Okay,” she replied, to the protest of Billy, Teddy, Eli, Tommy, and Kate.

            We fell silent, considering our futures.

“So, new time, new chance?”  Tommy asked as the images of Earth-723 flooded the tunnel around us.  We turned to look at the world in front of us.  Now that the moment to leave them had come, I wanted to remain with my friends.

            _If only I was—_

            But I stopped myself from that thought.  I could not change when I was born.  I could change others, not myself, not _my_ past, at least.

            That was where Kang—the one I knew—went wrong.  He traveled to his past.  He tried to change his past, and in doing so, he destroyed himself.

            _Good riddance._

            I had told Billy that I would be better than Kang, but as I stared at my friends, writing their faces and behaviors to my memory, I decided that _better than_ wasn’t the right promise.  I was going to _not_ be Kang.  There were other Kangs in the universe.  I did not have to join them.

            Instead, I was going to take one day at a time.  Know my present, consider my future—but mainly, _know my present._   And my present was with Cassie and the memories of my friends.

            So I echoed Tommy’s words, “New time, new chance.”

            “And you two are going to be okay?”  Eli questioned, staring at the image of Earth-723.

            “Yes.  I’ve studied this place.  Cassie’s parents never met, so there won’t be two Cassandra Langs running around.”

            “Will we be there?”  Teddy asks.  “Well, not _us_ exactly, but…”

            I glanced at Cassie, “We’ll have to see for ourselves.”  The portal to Earth-723 lit up.

            “This is it,” Cassie noted, turning to her friends.  To our friends.  She raised her arms to envelope everyone else in a hug.  “I love you guys!”  She sniffled.  “I will always love you.”

            Billy extended his hand to me.  I held back.  Cassie’s demeanor toward me had changed.  It had changed will all of my friends.  I had killed one of them.  I didn’t deserve—

            Before I could finish that thought, Teddy scooped me into the group embrace.  I squeezed my eyes shut, soaking in every memory I could of my friends before it was time to let go forever.

            And, too soon, it was time to go.  I backed away.  With one last squeeze of each friend’s hand, Cassie followed me.

            Hesitantly, I held out my hand to her.  She glanced up at me, with an expression of _this doesn’t change where we stand,_ and slipped her hand in mine.

            “The moment Cassie and I step out of here, you all will be transported back to your time and place.”

            They nodded.

            I blinked away tears.  “I’ll remember all of you.  And…thank you.”

Fighting a quivering chin, I forced myself to smile as Cassie and I stepped backward and out of the portal.  Our friends blurred and disappeared forever in front of us.  The portal shone in a burst of light, then faded away, revealing Earth-723, a beautiful and welcoming new land, before us.

            “So…Earth-723…” Cassie murmured with a whistle.

            “Our new home.”

            She turned to me.  “And I’ll never see my father again?”

            I swallowed.  “He’s alive here, but you aren’t his daughter.”

            “Oh.”  She lowered her eyes.  Her grip on my hand loosened.  “Can I still see him?”  She asked.

            “Yes, but we can’t tell him that you’re…related.”

            She swallowed and blinked back tears.  She clenched her jaw, exhaled, then stuck her chin out, raising her eyes.  “I can do that.”

            “It’s the end of our time as people from Earth-616.”

            She murmured, “An end has a start,” and released her hand from mine.

            _I deserve that._

            No longer touching, we seemed on opposite ends of a divide, one that would take years to breach, if ever.

            _But I’m going to try.  I’m going to remember what I’ve done.  Not Kang—me.  And I’m going to own up to it._

            “My…father can’t know I’m a Lang, can he?”

            “It would be difficult to explain.”

“So…new place, new name?”

            “If you’d like.”

            She squinted her eyes, considering.  “How about…Ravonna?”

            “Nice name.”  A gentle attempt at mending the divide.  It wasn’t enough, not even close.  Nothing would ever really be enough.

            She nodded.  “What about you?”

            “Hmmm…”  I racked my brain for a positive namesake.  I recalled someone from my travels, a being who worked to _preserve_ time streams instead of destroy them.  I met him in passing, and I wished him well.  Perhaps, perhaps I could follow a similar vein.  Perhaps I could preserve _this_ time line, preserve Cassie—Ravonna—and preserve myself.  Someone who would know when to fight battles and when to leave things be.  Someone who could atone.  “Kid Immortus,” I decided.

            “Eh,” she shrugged, “I like Nate better,” then met my eye.

            The frostiness would chip away.  The distance could be breached.  Not now, but some day.  Some day, I _will_ be better.

            “I’m going to be better.”  I promised.

            She shook her head.  “Be better _now_.”  She forced a smile, “There’s no time like the present.”  With those parting words, she turned and walked away from me.

            _I deserve this._   I told myself, once more.  _But she doesn’t deserve…this._ I watched as her figure shrunk, then disappeared, in the distance as evening slipped across the glowing sky.  I lifted my hands, palms facing upward.  I had destroyed Vision with these hands.  I could fix him with these same hands.  I _would_ fix him…

            “Well,” I whispered, “An end has a start.”

  


Epilogue

The Young Avengers—the remaining ones—did not remember returning to their time line.  They did not remember returning home.  In fact, they recollected nothing about events after Cassie’s death.  The pain doubled, as if it had happened only minutes ago.  They dealt with it, or ran from it, in their own ways.

            Some, as if led by a ticking clock, began to seize the day, as the motto goes.

            Tommy, morose and sobered, tried to slow down and enjoy every moment with his friends and newfound family—Billy and Teddy.  But in the end, nature won out, and he took to the road, running from his problems, you could say, but he would never admit to it.  His life was in the fast lane, breezing through all experiences that he could.

            Kate, too, soaked up what life offered, but with more reflection.  She would live for Cassie, but more than that, she would live for _herself._   So when a tall, light-haired Kree music-lover named Mar-Vell offered her a ride back to his place, she took it and enjoyed every minute of it.

            Others realized the fragility of life.

            Eli turned to his family for comfort.  Moving to Jefferson gave him a new start, fresh surroundings away from what he had witnessed, and a chance to be young.  No taking on the weight of the world by fighting crime.  No Mutant-Growth Hormone.  No Avengers.  He kept in contact with his friends, of course, but he made new ones and, overall, succeeded in leaving behind the bleak events.

            But Billy couldn’t.  He felt time stop, and it hadn’t picked up since what happened to Cassie.  Guilt gnawed at him.  Depression haunted him.  Somehow, he felt as if everything was his fault.  Eli may have shucked the weight of the world, but Billy had not.  Eventually, Teddy took his hand and led him out of the void within, helped him handle life, however much it changed, from day to day.  Love did not cure the pain inside of Billy’s heart, of course, but it gave him the courage to fight the monsters—inside and out.

            Teddy, witness to so much pain and loneliness, held out hope—hope in life, love, and his friends.  Even though he had sworn off crime-fighting along with his friends, he could not hold to that oath.  Compassionate and a fighter, he knew since the day he began to help others that he would never stop, that the bravery shown by the woman he would always know as his mother when she brought him to Earth would live on in him, and he would show the Universe the fierce loyalty to life that others had shown him.

            Sometimes, their thoughts returned to me, at whether I would become Kang after all, if I had indeed become better than Kang, if I regretted killing Jonas…But mostly, they moved past me.  I had brought together the Young Avengers, but I nearly destroyed them, as well.  In idle moments, they’d wonder if I would ever return to their time and take up the name Iron Lad again.

            But they wouldn’t hold their breath.

            I guess I wouldn’t, either.

¥

Time goes on.  Life goes on.

            We forget what we once thought was the center of the universe.  We forget the things we really should have kept track of.

            Like the Vision.  Kang, the one the Young Avengers and I confronted in the time stream, pieced him back together with tech from his time line, as I had repaired the original Vision years before.

            Remembering the moments up until I murdered him, he felt the pain and anger his friends had all moved on from.  Kang and Doom fed on that anger.

            By the time we found out about this, Cassie—Ravonna—and I had begun to reconcile.  So when she turned to me and held out her hand, I took it.

            “How long can we stay?”  She asked, hope returning to her eyes.

            “Long enough to right my wrong,” I replied, lacing my fingers in hers as the portal stretched out in front of us.

            “So…we won’t be able to see…them, will we?”  She knew the answer before she even asked.

            “Not this time.  But one day.”

            She nodded.  “Shall we?”

            I grinned, and we stepped across the portal and into the time stream.

Looking back on my earliest journeys, you might ask what have I learned of time travel?

            Well, that _is_ a loaded question…

_Fin._


End file.
